Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Better on a second reading, 6 Jun 2009
On the first, I reacted pretty much the same as the other reviewers, dashing off a two-sentence synopsis to a friend and telling him not to bother.
On the second reading I began to appreciate it more though, although readable, it's actually less accessible than some of Moore's other works (the first two LOEG volumes for example). I can understand why other reviewers were disappointed because the League appears relatively ineffectual in the story which itself is very separate from the other plot strand until the very end. We expect our heroes to, if not always win, at least have a significant effect. Here they are misled and ineffective.
The other part of the story concerns what happens to Nemo's daughter in London's East End, and not very pretty it is either, told in the manner of Brecht's Threepenny Opera with her as Jenny Diver and Macheath as a returning Jack the Ripper.
Operas tend to have prologues and this LOEG volume is essentially the prologue to the new series. What happens here will resonate in later volumes later in the century so it's certainly unfair to dismiss future parts on the basis of the first. However I can understand people who didn't like The Black Dossier (I do, a lot), not liking this as it's more in keeping with TBD's tone than with the first two books.
I particularly liked the Prisoner of London, trapped in space but not in time.
There seems to be some confusion over the identity of Quartermain Jnr. As far as I am aware he is Allan Quatermain made immortal by going, with Mina Murray, through Ayesha's fire. Oliver Haddo is the equivalent of Aleister Crowley in a W. Somerset Maugham story.
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13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Bit more intellectual than your average comic, 8 Jun 2009
-The most important thing to remember about this comic is that it's one of three, as in it's not a finished story. It's part one... of three.
And it's awesome. In scope and in content...
All of the negative feeling I got from the reviews on this page seemed to be some kind of backlash of Alan Moore's choice of content. Where 'The League' was originally praised for being complex, different, intelligent and actually required you to read - I know! Actual reading! - up on the subject if you wanted to get all of the jokes and references, now people seem to think that this is its downfall. That it's just too clever for its own good. Make up your minds people!
Personally I found it brilliant, elegant, brutal and it hints at a fantastic volume 3 (like I said this is just the first part). It also feels like Alan Moore is setting down a giant blueprint of the series by dabbling across time periods, that as this volume is a snapshot across three eras of the League you get the feeling he'll be filling in the missing years later (he gave us a broad outline in the black dossier). Or maybe he'll go back pre-mina and quartermain? Who knows, I'm just here for the ride. (I have only one question for Mr Moore, and that is will Sir Harry Flashman be making a cowardly appearence?)
If you want full page splashes of spandex clad super heros or eighty pages of fight scenes with dialogue amounting to four or maybe five words this simply isn't a comic for you. This is a comic for the more curious comic reader.
I say bring on the sixties League!
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10 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
You need to brush up on..., 31 May 2009
Your Brecht and Weill (and your Woolf, Berg and Reage) for this one, folks. In other words, Moore's inspiration comes mainly from turn of the century Europe. Not a bad idea, especially given the recent economic crisis (the main theme of the Threepenny Opera being "who is the biggest criminal, the man who robs the bank or the man who founds it?") and our obesession with serial killers. Mind you I had to look up Oliver Haddo... Enjoyable having Mina back and her present company is intriguing if not as well known overall as her former comrades. By the way, Allan Quartermain is not "Allen Quartermain Jr", you need to read the epilogue... Loved the King's Cross scene.
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